And in the midst of this wide quietness
by Lirael Alpha Orionis
Summary: The Sanctuary team is out on a mission on Christmas Eve. Why Nikola is there is anyone's guess.


Notes: Thanks to Dailna for the beta. Any subsequent ignoring of that advice was mine. ;) This was written for hijackingnikolatesla as part of magnass' Secret Santa on Tumblr. I hope you like it! Title from the last stanza of John Keats's "Ode to Psyche." Originally published on AO3.

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"Dammit!" Magnus swore. "We almost had it." She wanted to throw her hands up in frustration, but that wouldn't have been setting a very good example for Will and Kate. Or Nikola. She was supposed to be in charge. They were out in the city, trying to catch a family of small ferocious-looking creatures called lormers. Lormers were quite harmless, but they looked dangerous, and the general population was liable to call animal services or hurt them on sight if they saw them. Looking scary was the lormers' primary defence mechanism, but when it came to humans, it rather backfired. Magnus, Will, Kate, and Nikola had chased them into a busy public square downtown after the initial capture plan had gone awry.

"Well, that's just great," Nikola said. "Good job, everyone."

Magnus whipped around to face him. "Well, go home then if you don't like the way things are being done. What are you doing here, anyway?"

Nikola Tesla had shown up at the Sanctuary three days ago, offering to help and being generally cagey about why he was there. Magnus hadn't trusted his motives, but he could be useful when he chose to, and she decided she could use the extra pair of hands while Henry was away. She'd let him come on the mission this evening with a series of warnings to behave. So far, all he'd done was snark and criticize.

"Me? I'm here for your Sasquatch's cooking," he answered with a dangerous hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Best food in town."

Magnus turned away and stalked forward a few steps, waving her tracking device around. The square was full of people doing last minute shopping and taking home Christmas trees. There was a large tree set up in the centre, covered in lights and ornaments. Someone was selling cider and hot chocolate from a stand.

"Why are all these people here?" Magnus snapped. "It's impossible to get a reading on anything."

Kate whispered to Will, "Do you think she knows it's Christmas Eve?"

Will shrugged. "Ask her."

"You ask her!"

"I'm not asking Magnus if she knows it's Christmas!" He hissed back. "That's insane."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Chicken."

"Quiet, both of you," Nikola said.

"There!" Magnus said suddenly, as three raccoon-sized abnormals darted around a corner. They set off in pursuit, bumping into people and almost knocking things over. This was not their best retrieval.

"Sorry, sorry!" Will said over his shoulder to the annoyed voices behind them.

Kate knew this area of town better than the others and foresaw how this might play out. "I'm going around the side!" she said. "You come in the front."

Her manoeuvre worked. They got the lormers cornered and Will threw the net down over them. Kate was about to shoot tranquilizers, but Magnus stopped her.

"Wait," she said. "Look. They're not going to attack. They're really quite docile. They were just afraid."

"Sure," Will muttered. "Every time you say something is docile it ends up trying to kill us all."

Kate stood back. "I'll go get the van."

Will and Magnus stayed, guarding the abnormals. Nikola stayed, doing nothing. "A family," he observed. "Two parents, one offspring."

"Yes, thank you," Magnus said.

They waited in tense silence until Kate got back. She arrived with the van, and they loaded the unprotesting lormers on.

"Will, you and Kate go back to the Sanctuary and process these three. I want to make sure there aren't any more."

"You shouldn't stay alone -" Will started.

At the same time Nikola said, "I'll stay too."

Magnus raised her eyebrows. "Fine. I'll see you two back at the Sanctuary."

Will and Kate drove off. Nikola and Magnus walked back out into the square, doing a slow lap around the outside, Magnus checking her tracking device.

"I think we got them all." She looked up. "That's a beautiful tree." She looked around, taking in the seasonal decorations, the music playing over the loudspeakers. Christmas covers by the Punch Brothers, she thought. She recognized it because they'd given her a CD after she'd helped them out of a tricky spot last year.

"It's Christmas?" Magnus said.

"Yeah. You didn't get the memo?"

"I've had so many," Magnus said. "They seem to come around so fast."

"And...how's it going?" Nikola asked.

"How's what going?"

"Christmas."

Magnus realized suddenly why he was here. It was her first Christmas without Ashley, and her dangerous, immortal, vampire friend had shown up to chase abnormals with her, which he hated, just so he could ask her how she was doing. She remembered what it was like when they used to be friends. Real friends. Before the source blood. Not the game they played now. She felt her hostility melt a little.

"Thank you, Nikola," she said softly.

He pretended not to know what she was talking about. "For what?"

She didn't answer. Although this would only encourage him and was therefore a bad idea, Magnus leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Nikola tended to recover quickly from surprises. Before Magnus could pull back, he moved his head and kissed her on the mouth. He did it quickly, like he expected a negative reaction, but it didn't come. Instead, she kissed him back, just for a moment. Because he was there, and he was Nikola, and he was her friend, and she loved him in all of his Nikola-ness. Because he never stopped believing that things could be better. Granted, his idea of "better" generally involved him leading the vampire race into world domination, but at least he didn't give up. And as one immortal to another, it was nice to have someone around who didn't see the infinite time ahead as a burden, but instead as a gift. She needed a little bit of that this year; she'd spent quite a lot of it wishing she didn't have so many years left.

Magnus pulled back from the kiss. "I don't think there are any more lormers. We should get back to the Sanctuary and help with the intake."

"They've got it covered," Nikola said. "You know that."

"Yes," Magnus said. "But I want to get back anyway."

"After you." Nikola gestured in the direction of the van and followed Magnus back to it. She didn't know it, or didn't quite believe it, but he would follow her anywhere.


End file.
